BEER DRINKERS AND HELL RAISERS


AL SCHACHT


     There will always be room for people like Al Schacht in baseball.  Al only pitched in the "Show" for three years, all with the Washington Nats, where he accrued a 14-10 lifetime mark before a sore arm put him on the shelf  for good.  For the next fifteen years after his  retirement, he turned to coaching.  It was during these years that he developed a comedy routine that he would perform for fans at the ball park.

     In the beginning, he teamed with Nats coach, former major league star Nicky Altrock.  The two began to revive many of the routines that Altrock had pioneered with the late Germany Schaefer, his first partner. The two even extended there clowning to the off-season with a barnstorming basketball team called "The Holly Majors" that included former major leaguers Snooks Dowd and Dolly Stark.

     Al was always a pleasent and witty man, who could in the words of  one of his teammates, "make a corpse laugh."  He loved a good time, and enjoyed the nightlife, hanging with his buddies on and off the field. Eventually, Schacht made up a costume of a battered top hat, tattered frock coat, and took his act to the road.  He would sometimes wear a laughable oversized catchers glove that was almost as big as he was. His act was a bit of everything.  It was part pantomime and part anecdotes! 

     The act was an immediate hit, and as he toured the ballparks around the country, he made a small fortune.  His season finale was always the World Series.  He toured with the USO, traveling with Babe Ruth and others to Europe, Africa, and the Pacific.  Eventually he settled down and opened a  successful New York City restaurant that became a popular hang out for  sports celebrities.

Al Schacht died on July 14th, 1984 at the age of  91, leaving behind a legacy of laughter and fun.

I Have become a household word. Whenever I enter a town, a courier gallops madly through the streets and shouts. "Hey, girls-Al Schacht's in town!"
                                                                    ............Quote from Al Schacht, 1945